New series revisits best matchups between Devils, Islanders and Rangers from the 80s, 90s and 2000s

MSG Network will debut a new hockey series called “New York’s Greatest Hockey Rivalries” on Monday, November 19 at 9:00 p.m. The 16-part series will look back at some of the most intense games between the Rangers and Devils and the Rangers and Islanders over the past three decades.

Each two hour episode of “New York’s Greatest Hockey Rivalries” will feature host Bill Pidto alongside a pair of MSG’s expert hockey analysts, all of whom played in many of the showcased games and have unique and personal stories to share about their experiences. Dave Maloney and Pat Flatley examine the Rangers-Islanders games while Brian Leetch and Ken Daneyko discuss the Rangers-Devils rivalry.

In the series, Daneyko, one of three players to have his number retired by New Jersey, talks about what rivalries mean to players.

“Rivalries are what sports are all about,” said “Mr. Devil.” “If you don’t have some kind of hatred, then it’s not a rivalry, and we didn’t like the Rangers too much, as I’m sure they didn’t like us.”

Monday’s premiere episode looks back at Game 5 of the 1984 Patrick Division Semi-Final between the Rangers and Islanders in which star defenseman Ken Morrow scored the game-winner in overtime to send the Isles to the second round of the playoffs.

In the episode, Flatley, who was on the ice when Morrow scored, said about the game: “Even today, I can still feel the nervousness of that evening, which started in the morning, and almost being sick to my stomach all day in anticipation of the game and fearing losing (to the Rangers).”

Episode 2 of the series, which premieres Thursday, November 22 at 9:00 p.m., travels back to Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals between the Rangers and Devils. The night before the game, Rangers captain Mark Messier famously guaranteed a Blueshirts win to force a Game 7 back at Madison Square Garden. Whether Messier actually made a guarantee or not is up for debate, according to Daneyko, but Leetch understood what the captain was doing when he made those famous remarks to reporters.

“There was no question that Mark believed in our team,” said Leetch. “We had gotten beaten soundly in Game 5 and now we had to go back into the Devils’ home rink, and he just wanted the team to know by expressing in the paper that he believed that we were going in there to win that game.”

Below is a look at the lineup of games featured in the “New York’s Greatest Hockey Rivalries” series on MSG: